UPDATE: Equifax Credit Hacking Will Impact 100,000 Canadians

In our recent article, Equifax Credit Hacking: Are Canadians at Risk, we reported on the impact that Canadians will have from Equifax’s September 7 data breach. Although Equifax confirmed that only Canadians with open lines of credit in the U.S. could be affected, new investigations conducted by Equifax Canada shows that the personal information (names, addresses, Social Security Number, credit card number, etc.) belonging to approximately 100,000 Canadians is at risk for being fraudulently used.

Equifax Canada is directly contacting Canadian consumers who might have been affected by the data breach. To protect consumer privacy, Equifax has been working with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) and will be reaching out to Canadians by mail.

The letter will outline the steps that need to be taken immediately, and Equifax will be providing affected Canadians with free credit monitoring and identity theft protection for 12 months.

Equifax Canada will continue to issue statements and hold national press releases to notify consumers about the ongoing investigation. Alongside this, the credit monitoring company is working closely with Commissioners and consumer reporting registrars from Alberta, B.C., Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan to ensure that every potentially impacted Canadian gets notified as soon as possible.

A public announcement made by the OPC states that Canadians should not check whether they are affected by the breach via Equifax’s U.S. website, as it was designed only for those with U.S. social security numbers. Additionally, the OPC says that Equifax will not be calling affected consumers and advises Canadians to “hang up if someone calls claiming to be from Equifax, as scammers may try to take advantage of the breach; do not give any personal information over the phone or by email.”

Canadians need to ensure that they’re reviewing their credit report and account statements frequently, and any suspicious or unusual activity on an account should be reported to the appropriate financial institution immediately.

Equifax Canada is asking that anyone who has received a letter regarding this issue contact them at 1-866-699-5712 or by email at [email protected] if you have any questions about the information sent.